Take that, Wolfgang Puck: Daniel Boulud throws down for Gotham’s Oscar viewing party

Thelma Adams

Writer

Yahoo! Movies Oscars Blog•February 21, 2013

Guests will be drinking Red Carpet cocktails with a mini shiny statuette encased in a ball of ice. They will be snacking on tiger shrimp samosas inspired by the Oscar nominee "Life of Pi." And they won't be making any pesky acceptance speeches. In its efforts to expand beyond Hollywood, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has a relatively recent awards tradition: the New York dinner and viewing party. Chef Daniel Boulud of Restaurant Daniel will be hosting this year's night of all nights 3,000 miles to the east of the Dolby Theatre.

"Oscar Sunday is a night for celebration," said Patrick Harrison, the academy's New York program director, between samosas at an intimate tasting earlier this week. "Daniel is a vibrant and elegant location for a cocktail party and seated dinner choreographed and timed to the awards. The size of the restaurant is conducive so that people can get up and go to the bar. That is probably where you would find me."

As an Oscar statuette looked on, weighing in at 8.5 pounds and standing 13.5 inches high, Chef Daniel said that he "did not envy Wolfgang." In New York, he is doing canapés inspired by Oscar-nominated films, trying to "capture the soul of the movies," in yummy bites like the pommes d'Amour, for the best foreign-language film front-runner.

Recipes for your own viewing party, as well as the masterful mixology behind the Red Carpet cocktail's combination of pear-infused vodka and champagne, can be found at www.danielnyc.com.